Naval Research Laboratory, Code 3220, 4555 Overlook Ave. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20375-5326

66 -- TEM HEATING HOLDER WITH MULTI SCAN CCD CAMERAL SOL N00173-99-R-JR05 POC Jerry Riles, Contract Specialist, Code 3220.JR, (202) 767-2120, Wayne Carrington, Contracting Officer E-MAIL: CLICK HERE, RILES@CONTRACTS.NRL.NAVY.MIL. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. This solicitation, N00173-99-R-JR05, is a request for proposal (RFP). The incorporated provisions and clauses of this acquisition are those in effect for Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Federal Acquisition Circular 97-08 (excluding 97-07) and for Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) through Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation 91-13. The small business size standard for this acquisition is 500 and the SIC code is 3823. This acquisition is unrestricted. The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has a requirement for CLINs 0001 and 0002. CLIN 0001- Double Tilt Heating Specimen Holder for the Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM): a. Theholder must be 100% compatible with the Philips CM-30 TEM with a Twin Lens polepiece installed and with the Link Energy Dispersive Spectrometry system currently installed on the CM-30. Communication with the CM-30 shall be through the existing RS232 serial port, b. The holder shall be a side entry goniometer design. The holder shall allow the sample to be tilted about two perpendicular axes. Tilt in the alpha tilt direction (about the holder axis) shall be via the existing tilt controls and tilt motors on the CM-30 and shall be possible to tilt angles of no less than 45 about the holder axis (with a standard 3 mm specimen). The holder shall provide motorized tilt in the beta tilt direction (perpendicular to the alpha direction) which shall be controllable with the existing tilt controls on the CM-30 console. The holder shall allow tilts of no less than 30 about this beta axis when using a standard 3mm sample, c. The holder shall incorporate a furnace which is able to reach and maintain temperatures up to 1000 C. The heater winding, furnace body, anti-welding washers, and hexrings shall be made of tantalum or a comparable high-temperature alloy, d. The holder shall be supplied with a heating control unit that can be used in three differing modes of operation: i. Manual mode (temperature is manually controlled by user), ii. Peak temperature mode (controller ramps temperature up to selected peak temperature), iii. Ramp heating mode (controller heats sample according to selected ramp rate to selected peak temperature), e. The holder shall be supplied with a water recirculator. The recirculator must be fully compatible with the heating control unit. The water recirculator shall automatically turn itself on when the temperature of the holder reaches 500 C and stay on at all times while the holder is at 500 C or higher, f. The furnace temperature shall be measured by a high-accuracy thermocouple wire suited to these application temperatures (preferably type R (platinum -- 13% rhodium)) which shall be incorporated inthe furnace body. CLIN 0002- CCD Camera and software: a. The CCD shall be an astronomy grade CCD with a minimum of 1024 x 1024 pixels. The CCD shall have no more than TEN defects in the entire 1024 x 1024 image and shall have ZERO defects in the central 750 x 750 pixel image. Each pixel shall be physically 24 m x 24 m in size. ("Effective" or "interpolated" pixel sizes of 24 m x 24 m shall not be accepted.), b. The imaging system shall be optimized for vibration-free imaging of 300 kV electrons by employing a powder phosphor scintillator which is cooled by a Peltier cooler and fiber-optically coupled to the CCD. (Lens coupling or reduced fiber optical coupling is not acceptable.), c. The camera shall be pneumatically retractable, mounted on-axis, and have a sensor installed to automatically retract the camera head into a vacuum enclosure whenever the microscope camera chamber is about to be vented. The camera system shall be fully compatible with the existing TV camera system (Gatan model 622) and the standard film camera of the CM-30. For future applications, the CCD camera must be fully compatible with both a standard BF/DF STEM detector and a Gatan Imaging Filter, d. Interfaces to the air, water, and electronics systems of the TEM shall be included as standard, e. Images shall be acquired with a minimum depth of 14 bits and at more than 700 kHz. Acquisition of reduced-resolution images shall be supported through x2, x3, x4, and x8 binning, f. To limit streaking from saturated regions in the image; anti-blooming shall be provided as standard, g. Communications shall be via a high-speed 16-bit bi-directional DMA interface with asynchronous handshaking, h. Software shall be provided with the following capabilities: i. automatic astigmatism correction, ii. automatic coma-free alignment correction, iii. automatic focusing to user-specified defocus, iv acquisition, processing, and analysis of images and diffraction patterns from the CCD camera, v. automated acquisition and assembly of multiple full-sized CCD imageswith pixel-to-pixel alignment and automatic intensity correlations to form image montages with user specified number of images in each direction, percentage overlap between images, and binning factor, vi. simultaneous display of multiple images, vii. display of histograms and line profiles, viii. manual adjustments to brightness and contrast, ix automatic histogram equalization, x. flip, rotate, and rescale options, xi. analysis of point, line, or rectangular area, xii. fast fourier transforms, auto and cross correlations, median filtering, and flexible convolutions of images, xiii. automatic determination of diffraction peak locations to sub-pixel accuracy with user-assisted location of close peaks, xiv automatic determination of diffraction pattern d-spacings, reciprocal distances, angles, and angles to reference orientation, xv. drag and drop capabilities, xvi. annotation of images with scale bars, text, boxes, circles, lines, and arrows, xvii. automatic saving of images, xviii. storage of image files in TIFF and JPEG formats. 3. Installation and Training: The offeror shall provide complete installation of the system and provide a demonstration of all system capabilities during the initial installation. On-site training must be provided immediately following completion of system installation. The training shall be no less than one (1) full work day. 4. Warranty: All equipment and system components shall be warranted in accordance with standard commercial practices for a period of one (1) year. 5. Documentation: The contractor shall provide Operational and Maintenance manuals on all system components. The contractor shall provide documentation for adding additional user-input software routines and accessing additional routines which are not included in the standard package shall also be provided. Delivery and acceptance is the Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Ave. S.W. Washington, DC 20375-5326, FOB Destination, no later than 90 days from date of award. The FAR and DFAR provisions and clause sited herein are incorporated by reference into this solicitation. Offerors are advised to propose in accordance with the provision at FAR 212-1, Instructions to Offerors-Commercial Items. The proposal must demonstrate an understanding of all requirements covered in the RFP's terms and conditions. General statements that the offer can or will comply with the requirements, that standard procedures will be used, that well known techniques will be used, or paraphrases the RFP's Specifications in whole or in part will not constitute compliance with these requirements concerning the content of the technical proposal. Offerors will be evaluated in accordance with FAR 212-2, Evaluation-Commercial Items. The specific evaluation criteria under paragraph (a) of FAR 52.212-2 is: (1) price (2) technical capability of the item offered to meet NRL's need (3) past performance. Technical and past performance combined, are of equal importance compared to price. Offerors are advised to include with their offer a completed copy of the following provisions: FAR 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items and DFARS 252.225-7000, Buy American Act-Balance of Payments Program Certificate. The following FAR clauses apply to this acquisition: FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial items, FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes of Executive Orders-Commercial Items. The additional clauses that are applicable to this acquisition are FAR 52.203-6, FAR 52.203-10, FAR 52.219-8, FAR 52.222-26, FAR 52.222-35, FAR 52.222-36, FAR 52.222-37, FAR 52.225-3, FAR 52.225-18, and FAR 52.247-64. The clauses at DFARS 252.212-7001, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes Applicable to Defense Acquisitions of Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition. The additional clauses cited applicable to this acquisition are DFARS 252.225-7001, DFARS 252.225-7007, DFARS 252.225-7012, DFARS 252.204-7004, and DFARS 252.232-7009. Any contract awarded as a result of this solicitation will be a DO rated order certified for national use under the Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS) (15CFR 700). Any questions generated, as a result of this solicitation must be received no later than 10 days before the closing date. Original and two (2) copies of the Offerors proposal must be delivered to Contracting Officer, Bldg. 222, Rm. 115A, Naval Research Laboratory, Code 3220:JR, 4555 Overlook Ave. S.W. Washington, DC 20375-5326, and received no later than 4:00 p.m. E.S.T. on 01 March 1999. The package should be marked RFP N00173-99-R-JR05, Closing Date: 01 March 1999. For more information regarding this solicitation contact Jerry Riles, Contract Specialist at (202) 767-2120. All responsible sources may submit a proposal, which shall be considered by the agency. Synopsis number JR05. Posted 01/26/99 (W-SN291576). (0026)

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